Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Saturday Tribune-Review.
Q: In regards to TV ratings, how are they compiled electronically? Is a “watching viewer” counted automatically as the program begins or further into the broadcast?
— Tom, via email
Rob: Nowadays ratings are compiled electronically via devices attached to TV sets of a representative sample of households in a given TV market. Nielsen will send out letters recruiting people to participate in the sample, often enclosing some cash as encouragement.
A friend in Castle Shannon shared with me the letter she received from Nielsen recently that included a $5 bill. The letter said a “Nielsen research associate” would call her within the next few days and promised to send “an additional $10 for completing the short telephone survey.” She indeed received the $10 by mail within 15 days of receiving the first letter that kicked off the exchange. That particular survey did not lead to Nielsen installing a ratings measurement device on her TV, but the initial approach is similar in cases where that does happen.
Nielsen also included a pamphlet on the ratings, including a section on how the company chooses which households to contact: “Why me? Why not my neighbor? Each household is unique and may use and encounter media in very different ways. Because we select very few households to participate in the ratings, it’s important that we include as many types as possible. Your household was specially selected to represent hundreds of others in your local area.”
Even in the days when Nielsen estimated ratings using paper diaries (pre-2009 in Pittsburgh) a “watching viewer” was not counted unless they got recruited by Nielsen to be part of the research sample.
Q: I saw where the Oscars were down 9% in viewership from last year, the worst since 2022. What do you attribute to this ratings dive?
— Chad, via email
Rob: My guess is there were people like me who had not seen any of the films nominated for best picture, so they didn’t tune in, although I reveal that regretfully because I really want to see “Sinners” but I keep having to watch TV shows to do my job (#TVCriticProblems).
While “Sinners” was a popular and financially successful film, I’m not sure the “Sinners” audience has a lot of overlap with the Oscars audience.
“F1’s” probably has more overlap between its audience and the Oscars, but since it never stood a chance of winning, probably not a lot of Oscars telecast viewers were watching in anticipation of that outcome.
Another element that might have hurt the ratings: While the “K-Pop Demon Hunters” song “Golden” was clearly a massive hit and was performed during the Oscars, I’m also not convinced the audience for that film and its music is as much the Oscars audience as viewers of “Wicked,” which saw one of its songs performed during the 2025 awards ceremony.
Older viewers are always more likely to watch the Oscars; younger viewers are overall less likely to watch and this was a year when there were limited nominated films of interest to a mass youth audience.
Q: Is it just me or does anyone else find it annoying that the anchors on Channel 11 news at 11 p.m. repeatedly say, “11 at 11,” throughout the news broadcast?
— Joan, Greensburg
Rob: I’m sure Joan is not alone in disliking the repetition of the station’s late-news branding, but that’s a pet peeve, not a question of journalism ethics.